Coke-oveu



H. W. BUHLER.

COKE OVEN.

1,319,840 APPLICATION FILED JAN. 18. I917. Patented Oct. 28,1919. 8 WQ WWW WW/WW W mm W W H. W. BUHLER.

EETS-SHEET 2.

COKE OVEN.

APPLICATION FILED IAN. I8. 1917.

Patented THE mum HENRY W. BUI-ILER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

COKE-OVEN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. Oct. :28, 1919.

Application filed January 18, 1917. Serial No. 142,996.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY W. BUI-ILER, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Boston, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coke-Ovens, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates generally to heating apparatus employing fluidforms of fuel such as gas or oil, but is more specifically designed foruse in coke ovens havlng a plurality of heating flues. These fines areusually formed in the walls between the re torts of the coke oven andarr.nged vertically. As heretofore built these fiues have been somewhatinaccessible for cleaning or observation and difficult of individualcontrol.

It is most important in coking operations that the retort heating systemshall be flexible and responsive to control both as a whole and in itsindividual units, since it is necessary to produce uniformity of heatingat times and individual var 1at1ons of heating effect at other times. Itis also 1mp'ortant that there shall be faclllty of lnspection, cleaning,or simple repair of any one unit without shutting down the operatlon ofthe entire system. My invention accomplishes these objects and, asherein illustrated, is shown applied to a coke oven having horizontalretorts with vertical combustion fines and waste gas 'fiues formed inpairs in the walls between the retorts, thls being the best form ofapparatus embodying my invention at present knownto me. In the drawingsFigure 1 is a vertical section through a coke oven, the section shown inthe right hand half being taken on planes passing through the waste gasfines on the irregular dotted line CD, and the section shown 1n the lefthand half on a plane passing through the heating lines on dotted lineAB, of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on planes perpendicular to those of Fig. 1,the section shown in the right hand half being taken on a plane passingthrough the waste gas flues on a dotted line G-H, and the section shownin the left hand half on a plane passing through the heating flues on adotted l1ne EF, of Fig. 1.

Fi 3 is a horizontal section on line I-J of Fig. 1.

Throughout the drawings like reference characters indicate like parts:1, 1, represent retorts or coking chambers having side walls 2, 2, acommon top wall 21, and a common base or foundation having galleries 22,22, therein. In the side walls are a plurality of vertical combustionfiues, 3, 3, and waste gas fiu'es 4, alternating one with another andarranged in tandem, and all tributary to the common horizontal flue or001- le'cting conduit 5, located above them. As indicated by the arrows,each combustion flue 3, discharges into conduit 5, through a slightlyrestricted opening or mouth 19, and each waste gas flue 4, draws gasesof combustion or gases in process of combustion from said conduitthrough an opening therefrom which may be varied in size by manipulationof damper 6, which is merely a loose tile of refractory material whichis confined and guided in its sliding movements by raised lips 18, 18,on the flue ends. Preferably the conduit 5, is formed in a straight linefrom end to end, and at one or both ends are formed observation ports orpeep holes 20, 2'0.

11, 11, are gas mains in galleries 22, '22, connected to burners, or gasnozzles 13, 13, controlled by valves 12, 12. These burners extendthrough vertical passageways 14, 14, in the base of the oven nearly tothe lower ends of combustion lines '3, 3. Air is supplied to saidcombustion flues from passages 15, 15, through branches 16, 16, in theoven ase.

Waste gas flues 4, 4, discharge through collecting flues 17, 17, alsoformed in the oven base.

7, 7, are passageways in the top wall 21, of the oven openin out ofcollecting conduit 5, opposite the dampered inlets to waste flues 4, 4,and 8, 8, are removable covers for these passageways. 9, 9, are similarpassageways opening out of collecting conduit 5, opposite the mouths ofcombustion flues 3, 3, and 1O, 10, are removable covers for this secondset of ports or openings.

In operation gas and air are discharged in proper proportions into thelower ends of flues 8, '3, where they combine and "the flames then passup through the fines and through openings or flue mouths 19, 19, tocollecting conduit 5, and perhaps part way down the adjacent wastegasfiues 4, 4, ultimately passing out through collecting flues 17 to achimney (not shown). The flue walls and walls of conduit 5, aremaintained a white heat throughout if all flues are working normally. Iffor any reason proper combustion is not taking place in any flue 3, theadjacent portion of the wall of conduit 5, will darken in color and theoperator, looking through observation port 20, is immediately advisedthereby of the fact of trouble and or its location. The imperfectworking of the offending flue can then be immediately corrected bymanipulation of adjacent dampers 6, 6, or of the proper gas valve 12, orby both means. As shown, the conduit 5, is of small cross section, thearea of its cross section being little larger than, or approximatelyequal to that of the mouth 19, of each combustion flue or the undamperedinlet to each waste gas flue 4:. In other words, the areas of thedischarge mouths 19, 19, of flues 3, 3, and of the intake mouths offlues &, a, when the latter are given their maximum area by movingdampers 6, 6, to the extreme left hand positions, looking at Fig. 2, donot vary greatly, and the cross sectional area of conduit 5, isapproximately the same as that 01 each port 19, 19. In any ev nt theconduit capacity should be much less than the aggregate capacity of allthe combustion flue outlets, or of all the waste gas flue inlets.Consequently the suction of each waste gas flue is substantially localin its effect on the contents of conduit 5, and this suction istransmitted to only the adjacent combustion flues, 2'. c. it takesburning gases from only the two adjacent combustion flues. Thus eachwaste gas flue acts only on such adjacent combustion flues unless itssuction is varied widely in ct fect from that of other waste gas flues.If the darkening color of the collecting conduit walls adjacent to agiven combustion flue shows the operator that such flue is not doing itsfull duty the reason probably is that the draft on it is belowrequirements. Accordingly the operator will remove cover 8, over one orboth the adjacent waste gas flues, 4:, 4t, reach in with a proper tooland move their dampers 6, 6, so as to increase the openings to eachflue, thereby accelerating the draft and corrccting the trouble. Also,if too great heat is being developed in any zone of a retort 1, apartial closing of dampers 6, 6, in flues adjacent to that Zone willreduce combustion, and vice versa.

Passageways 14: and 9, also afford access to flues 3, 3, by any propercleaning tools. This would usually be done through passageway 9, alone,but, if necessary, burner 13, could be removed and passageway 14, usedas an avenue of discharge for clinker or other debris collected in theflue 3, such clinker being first broken up by tools inserted through theupper passage 9. In

the same way passageways 7 7, may be used for inserting tools forcleaning flues l, 4, as well as for manipulating dampers 6, 6.

The advantages of my invention comprise the above described flexible,individual control of any flue or group of flues without interferingwith the mass control of the whole system (as by variations in totalchimney draft), the perfect accessibility of all flues and passages andthe perfect ease of complete inspection and observation oi? all portionsof the heating apparatus while in use.

I wish it understood that various changes can be made in the details ofconstruction shown and described without departing from the substance ofmy invention so long as the general principles of operation and coactionof parts herein set forth are preserved.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a heating apparatus the combination, with a plurality ofcombustion flues and waste gas flues arranged in series alternately toform a plurality of heating units each provided with air and fuelsupplying and waste gas removing means, of a conduit extending along theends of all said flues and forming the sole means of communica tionbetween the members of each unit, and individual means for controllingsuch communication.

2. In a heating apparatus the combination, with a plurality ofcombustion flues and waste gas flues arranged in series alternately toform a plurality of heating units each provided with air and fuelsupplying and waste gas removing means, of a conduit extending along theends of all said flues and forming the sole means of communicationbetween the members of each unit and individual means for controllingsuch communication, said individual means comprising a movable damperplaced across the port by which each waste gas flue communicates withthe collecting conduit.

3. In a heating apparatus the combina tion, with a plurality ofcombustion flues and waste gas flues arranged in series alternately toform a plurality of heating units each provided with air and fuelsupplying and waste gas removing means, of a conduit extending along theends of all said flues and forming the sole means of communicationbetween the members of each unit, and individual means for controllingsuch communication, said collecting conduit being provided with a portthrough which the condition of its interior adjacent each comb-ustionflue can be observed.

4. In a heating apparatus the combination, with a plurality ofcombustion flues and waste gas flues arranged in series alternately toform pluralities of heating couples each provided with air and fuelsupplying and waste gas removing means, of a conduit extending along theends of all said flues and forming the sole means of communicationbetween the members of each unit, and individual means for controllingsuch communication, said collecting conduit being provided with anopening in its wall opposite the end of each flue and in line with theaxis thereof.

5. In a heating apparatus the combination, with a plurality ofcombustion flues and waste gas fiues arranged in series alternately toform a plurality of heating units each provided with air and fuelsupplying and waste gas removing means, of a conduit extending along theends of all said flues and forming the sole means of communicationbetween the members of each unit and individual means for controllingsuch communication, said individual means comprising a movabledamperplaced across the port by which each waste gasflue communicateswith the collecting conduit, and said conduit having an opening in itswall opposite each damper through which the damper may be manipulatedand its position observed.

6. In a heating apparatus the combination, with a plurality ofcombustion fiues and waste gas fiues arranged in series alternately toform a plurality of heating units each provided with air and fuelsupplying and waste gas removing means, of a conduit extending along thends of all said fines and forming the sole means of communicationbetween the members of each unit, and individual means for controllingsuch communication, said individual means comprising a movable damperplaced across the port by which each waste gas flue communicates withthe collecting conduit, said combustion flue ports being ofsubstantially uniform area of opening and said conduit having a crosssectional area approximating thereto.

7. In a heating apparatus the combination, with a plurality ofcombustion fines and waste gas flues arranged in series alternately toform a plurality of heating units, of a single collecting conduitextending along the ends of all said fines and communicating therewith,the maximum'individual areas of all the communicating openings beingsubstantially uniform each with the others, and the cross sectional areaof the collecting conduit being approximately equal thereto.

HENRY W. BUHLE'R.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

